View/save PDF version of this document - La Strada International

Having people collect similar data in different localities contemporaneouslycan enhance the quality of data, in that researchers can triangulate with eachother information about their research locations. This enables researchersto complete and correct information by asking more relevant or detailedquestions to their own respondents and by questioning about topics thatthey would otherwise not think of. For example, a respondent in Accradid not mention that she owned a business, but it came out in Amsterdamthat the migrant helped her to start one. This alerted the researcher inAccra to ask more detailed questions about business activities in orderto get more complete information. Another example is when it resultedfrom an interview with a migrant that had a tense relationship with one ofher network members in Ghana; it was possible to also ask the networkmember in Ghana about this relationship so as to get both versions of astory. More detail was added and better insight was gained on the nature ofthe relationship and how it evolved over time to become strained.The repeated nature of the research methods, interviewing people on amonthly basis over a one-year period, made it possible to observe changingattitudes or social relationships that occurred over the fieldwork period. Inthe course of our study, a mother (in Ghana) and daughter (in Amsterdam)became closer to each other after a period of estrangement. We were ableto ask about the reasons for the estrangement and also to observe how therelationship evolved. Quantitative data showed that the closeness betweenmother and daughter resulted in a series of two-way flows between Ghanaand the Netherlands that had not existed in previous years.84In another case, we witnessed the growing religiosity of a respondent.While at the beginning of the research we conducted various interviewsin which the respondent was quite critical of Ghanaian pastors operatingin Amsterdam, she slowly became a frequenter of one of the Pentecostalchurches in her neighbourhood. We were able to trace the events leadingto her increasing religiosity and the effects this had on her exchangeswith people in Ghana. We were thus able to document what importantfactors lead to such strong membership to Ghanaian Pentecostal churchesin the Netherlands and the flows this generates. Another way the SMSmethodology can track changes, although not unique to it, is by followingthose respondents who move from one research location to another (Smith1998; Sorense 1998).One year of data collection cannot pick up on all changes, but it doesenable researchers to observe the evolution of some attitudes and socialrelationships, rather than rely only on interviews. These latter are subject to